Ulysses Content Strategy

McKINSEY REPORT'S NUMBER ONE CONTRIBUTION TO BRAND STRENGTH:
'honest & open dialog with your customers'

BY MINUTE TWO, I GOT TO THE POINT
this, I suspect, will be my focus for many future videos. The challenge is 'how to lay the scene so everyone understands the data's context'... in as little time as possible.

ITS BECOMING CLEAR TO ME THAT THE ROLE OF SOCIAL MEDIA
is to give people a chance to know you and hear your thoughts on some subjects, before they ever have to talk to you. This is barely a half-step away from my previous thought, 'the role of content strategy is to build credibility ahead of a prospect speaking to sales.' In essence, that sales comes after marketing.

#ContentStrategy #ContentMarketing #ThoughtLeadership

HOW IS CONTENT STRATEGY LIKE ASPEN EXTREME?
because "skiing is the easy part..."

SO IS SHOOTING VIDEO
this winter, while working the challenge of editing my first 20 test videos, one quote was running laps in my mind: "shooting videos is the easy part, Ryan." It was my brain's spin on a bookend quote from the quintessential 90s masterpiece film, Aspen Extreme.

SHOOTING VIDEO IS THE EASY PART
we know our stuff. we know what we want to say. we have every confidence in our thought leaders on conference show room floors and discovery calls - in front of a camera is no different.

#ContentStrategy #ContentMarketing #ThoughtLeadership

FOR B2B MARKETING & PR, THIS STUDY IS ESSENTIAL READING:
McKinsey study says B2B marketing and PR are wasting their time and money branding firms to themes that don't matter.

THE THEMES THAT MATTER
#1: Honest and open dialog with customers, 0% of top 90 B2B companies address this
#2: [covered in future post], 4% address
#3: Has specialist expertise, 36% of top 90 B2B companies address this

COMBINE THOSE
how do we project "honest and open dialog" that demonstrates "specialist expertise" = video.

A thought leader's face and reputation on video is a guarantor of authenticity & sharing specialist expertise is each video's goal

#ContentStrategy #ContentMarketing #ThoughtLeadership

MEDIA WILL SHIFT TO LOWER PRICE & LOWER PRODUCTION VALUE, because quality has diminishing returns.

I suspect - particularly for social media - that the only quality threshold to surpass is, "is this irritating?" Unless the lighting is so distorting or the sounds quality so choppy it makes an irritating watch/listen, then what matters is the messaging itself and how a thought leader articulates their point. NOT the quality of the audio/video.

I'll continue to point out laudable examples from my LinkedIn feed. Fiserv's Oscar Munoz put forward a compelling video recently: clean, professional, mild video editing... a channel to present the data he wished to share. A great post!
https://lnkd.in/e4QK-Bb

#ContentStrategy #ContentMarketing #ThoughtLeadership

MAN WITH FEW "LIKES" CLAIMS "LIKES" AREN'T THAT IMPORTANT...!
So yeah, this point would be more convincing if my posts had 100s of likes - but after posting 20 of these LinkedIn videos, its clear that the people who "like" are an audience sub-segment of friends, family, colleagues and former colleagues.

THIS MAKES SENSE
Any 'reaction' registered by a LinkedIn post reader automatically plants that post back into their own feed. Reacting to a post is an act of posting itself.

WE'RE IN THE PUBLIC FORUM
and these accounts are inherently related to personal 'brand.' Anyone who wants to focus their personal messaging needs to be selective about where they interact on LinkedIn

VIDEO VIEWS
are an anonymous gauge of how many people stopped on your video post - this directly correlates to attention, and this is the KPI to judge your post's effectivity.

#ContentStrategy #ThoughtLeadership #ContentMarketing

HOW ARE EXPERTISE SHARING VIDEOS LIKE THE WWF?
Well, you can tap an outside resource to drop in and slam your point home.

Here, I'm going to tap the genius of NYU Professor Scott Galloway to articulate a point I've realized and put into action, but not yet put into words:

Video production value reaches a point of diminishing returns rather quickly. The costs to produce a 'good' amateur video (here, 'good' will be defined as "not-irritating") are extremely low. In comparison to a B2B marketing budget... the dollars (maybe $10K?) are an afterthought. Yet, consumption remains high. People don't seem to care the videos aren't '60 Minutes' quality.

For a great example of thoughtful, data rich, and professional videos executed on a PHONE (!!!), I highly recommend HSBC's Jeremy Balkin's weekly LinkedIn posts.

#ContentStrategy #ThoughtLeadership #ContentMarketing

THE CONTENT DOGFOOD CONUNDRUM
no data here, no facts, just pure unadulterated opinion - whats more, I can't even put my finger on EXACTLY whats wrong... but theres a marketing habit we have to break:

The Content Dogfood Conundrum is when the word "content" subsumes the meaning of every media tactic to the point of confusion. A hallmark of the conundrum is the indefinite article, "THE content." Afflicted conversations will rotate around the "the content" until all parties are unsure of which content is being referred to.

#ContentStrategy #ThoughtLeadership #ContentMarketing

3 days ago

FOR MARKETERS, THESIS AFFIRMING DATA IS LIKE MANA FROM HEAVEN
McKinsey's "How B2B Companies Talk Past Their Customers" is compelling background data for why executive thought leadership should be should be the focal point of B2B marketing efforts.

HONEST AND OPEN DIALOG WITH CUSTOMERS
is found the be the largest contributor to brand strength.
Lets re-state that: in terms of what motivates B2B buyers, 'honest and open dialog' is most compelling.

WHAT DOES THAT MEAN FOR MARKETERS?
Video. It means thought leaders on camera presenting why solutions work, how firms circumnavigate challenges, and what data supports their conclusions.

#ContentStrategy #ContentMarketing #ThoughtLeadership

THOUGHT LEADERSHIP CATCH 22:
We want the microphone in the hands of our most dynamic speakers. We want our experts at the forefront of our brands.

However, those same experts have the LEAST amount of time to devote to marketing. Thats the Thought Leadership Catch 22:
'be the face and carry the flag of our brand... between meetings... once you're off your call... looks like you've left the office...'

It makes it crucial for marketing to be highly efficient with what time we're allotted: use a PROLIFIC (favorite word) media like video to turn a 30 minute discussion into video clips, audio podcast, and written article. 3 posts in 1 sitting.

#ContentStrategy #ThoughtLeadership #ContentMarketing

THIRSTY MAN GOES BACK TO THE WELL
on how 'video views' are a better KPI than 'likes' for LinkedIn video posts

GOAL: LIMIT VIDEO DURATION, INCREASE POST VOLUME
since I can't be sure how long each 'video view' is - I'm working to limit each video's length. My gut tells me 90-120 seconds. Its challenging to approach a topic with only 90 seconds... the up-side is that you yield more posts from a single topic, taking multiple cuts.

BATCH RECORDING
I'm trying to do a week's worth of post recordings in a single shoot 'session.' This seems to work, but I find I need to do more prep-work in advance. My former method of 'have a cup of coffee while jotting down notes, then shoot' is giving way to 'have a notebook by your desk to format ideas in advance...'